Can These Bones Live? Ezekiel 37:1-14 040614M
I remember one of the childhood vacations we took out west. We were driving through the desert, and my dad spotted this cow or steer skull beside the road. We brought it home where it resided as a decoration in our rec room for many years. How did the animal die? What would it have looked like alive with all its flesh, skin and hair intact? Seeing the remnants of the skull was kind of frightening for a young child. It was a symbol of death, and how being in a desert can be a life and death situation. That symbol was similar to a vision the prophet Ezekiel had of an entire valley of dry bones. In it the Lord asked Ezekiel a question. But the Lord knew the answer to the question better than Ezekiel did:
Can These Bones Live?
1. Consider the ravages of sin.
2. Contemplate the renewal of the Spirit.
1. The vision God granted Ezekiel was to reveal the spiritual plight of the people of Israel, and God's remedy for it. Ezekiel's career as God's prophet spanned the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Babylonians, and the first part of the Israelites' captivity in Babylon. Ezekiel had the difficult job of foretelling the judgment God was going to bring on his people because of their wickedness, rebellion, sin and idolatry. Yet, when that judgment came about, Ezekiel also had the joyful task of giving God's dejected people a message of hope and optimism for the future. That's what led to God's question to Ezekiel, "Can these bones live?" God wanted his people to Consider the ravages of sin.
The dry bones were a picture of the spiritual state of the southern kingdom of Israel known as Judah. Ezekiel recounts: 1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." God himself gave the explanation of whom it was the dry bones represented in Ezekiel's vision: 11 Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' What a description of the ravages of sin! God's people who were to be a nation of warriors contending for God and serving him had turned on him. They looked to false gods for the things they needed, and abandoned the temple worship with its sacrifices that pointed to the coming Savior. For all practical purposes, they were spiritually dry and dead like a valley of old, dry, dead bones. By yielding to the devil's temptations to sin, they had let him become like a vulture tearing away their flesh piece by piece. That's why God allowed them to be carried off into captivity as Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed--an earth-shattering event that seemed unimaginable.
And you know what? You and I are just as dry and dead by nature. We show it in the way we sin against God all the time too. The devil pecks at us with his temptations just as he did God's ancient people. Too often we yield to sin to the point that we become calloused and hardened to certain sins. Our conscience hardly bothers us any longer to commit them. When we're numb to what God is telling us, we're in grave spiritual danger as our faith can die inch by inch. God sometimes sends or allows difficulties to come into our lives so that we wake up and see our depravity and the ravages of sin. By nature we are spiritually dry and dead, and the proof is the fact that one day we will physically die, unless the Lord returns first. That valley of dry bones describes us, as God says to each sinner, "Dust you are, and to the dust you will return." We are as helpless to change our situation as were the people of the kingdom of Judah in Ezekiel's time.
2. This is what prompted God's question: "Can these bones live?" It seemed impossible that they could ever come to life. Were it up to the people themselves, it would have been impossible. But not with God! All things are possible for him, even bringing about new life were there was only death before. In answering the question, "Can these bones live?" Contemplate the renewal of the Spirit.
Those old bones COULD come back to life. How? Through God's power. And by what means? Ezekiel's prophesying to them, in other words, speaking God's Word: 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'" Ezekiel did as God commanded him in the vision, and the results were amazing: 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet — a vast army.
Note that the word for "breath" and "Spirit" is the same in Hebrew, "ru-ach." What was it that made the bones come to life? It was the Holy Spirit, the "Breath of the Living God." And he works through prophesying, that is, through the speaking of God's Word. Specifically it is the good news of God's grace, mercy and forgiveness in the Savior he was sending into the world. That's the message through which the Holy Spirit reinvigorated them.
Ezekiel's message of good news was certainly fulfilled when God's people were permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild its walls and temple. But his words were fulfilled especially when God preserved a believing remnant of Israelites from which the Savior eventually came, bring new life to the entire world. Ezekiel recounts: ...12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Note who rightfully gets the credit for reinvigorating the nation: it was God himself. He gets all the glory: Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.'" God brought his people to repentance through his Word. Note how God calls them "my people" even though they had turned their backs on him. What a comfort to know God hadn't turned his back on them!
God treats you and me the same way. By his Word he gave us new spiritual life, in most cases at our baptism already. Even over the course of our life, when we get spiritually dry and feel almost dead to God inside, God reinvigorates us through his Word of forgiveness and life in the Savior. Don't you ever feel as King David did when he sinned: When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD" — and you forgave the guilt of my sin (Ps 32:3-5).Though WE were once by nature dead in our transgressions and sin, he now calls us "my people" as he did with the people of Judah. He fulfilled the promises he made to Judah, allowed them to return home to Israel, and sent the Savior as he promised. That Savior lived without sin for everyone in the world, and was forsaken by God with the sins of the whole world on his shoulders. He was the one thristing on the cross, instead of us! In him we are forgiven, holy, spiritually "whole" and complete as God wants us to be. We are alive, like bones wrapped in flesh, sinews, skin, and the like. And God did it all by means of his Spirit working through his powerful Word of forgiveness and love in Jesus.
If that's what reinvigorates us as individuals, you can be sure that that Word is what also invigorates groups of Christians like our own congregation and synod. If we want to bring our church back to life, what do we need? More fellowship events, fund raisers, and outreach activities, right? No--we need more of the Word of God! We need more people understanding from the Bible their spiritual plight and what God did about it in Jesus and his cross. More people in church each week, and Bible classes, and studying their Bibles at home. Then we know the Holy Spirit is working. If we aren't connected to God via his Word, and others aren't presented with the Word of God, there can be no new life or regeneration. Yet, how we need that life that is ours in Christ!
Then we won't be dry and dead spiritually like the valley of dry bones Ezekiel saw, or like the skull our family saw in the desert. When we ask about ourselves, "Can these bones live?," we know the answer is a resounding YES! Consider the ravages of sin, and contemplate the renewal of the Spirit. With God's power and love in Christ, as revealed in his Word, there's no question! Amen!
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Can These Bones Live?
1. Consider the ravages of sin.
2. Contemplate the renewal of the Spirit.
1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."
11 Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.'
4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'"
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet — a vast army.
...12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land.
Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.'"
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD" — and you forgave the guilt of my sin (Ps 32:3-5).